Loyalty programs are well known and clearly successful. Best Western is one of the oldest at 20 years, but most big hotels and airlines now have some sort of a program.

One of the interesting things about these programs is how they expand and contract over the years and how they are also adaptable to any kind of business – national or local. On the expansion level, Delta just announced that you can trade in sky miles for many other things instead of just flying. Miles can be redeemed for gift certificates to national restaurants and retail merchants. These expanded offerings were resisted for a long time but I think they will find it makes the use of the miles accumulated easier and members will think of the airline more often and more favorably when they can use the miles for items they might otherwise have to pay cash for.

Loyalty programs are also adaptable. We use a variation program in our Kennedy’s Barber Clubs. If you are a member, you are given a business card with your own name on it and are invited to hand them out to your friends with a free “haircut and Shave” coupon on the back. If the coupon is redeemed and the customer becomes a new member then the member who passed out the card gets a free month of service. It is a great deal for everyone. Members have an opportunity to do a favor for a friend and at the same time get real value awards for the gesture. The Club benefits in the form of referrals which we all know are one of the strongest methods of marketing.

Cross promotions between merchants also work. Examples are easy to see on a national level with American Express cross promoting with airlines but down at the local level the idea can be adapted too. A men’s retailer can cross promote with a woman’s retailer to provide gift opportunities to their clients and the gift doesn’t compete or hurt their own sales since it is to a different gender.

How can you use a loyalty program in your business? What steps need to take place to implement quickly?

Customer endorsements
Continuity programs
Loyalty programs
Sweepstakes
Rebates
Coupons
In-Billing advertisements
Business reply cards
Location-Based targeting.

Keep your eye out for my emails and blogs which will carry the heading 30 Year Proven Marketing Strategies and the number I am commenting on.

As we all know, the best time to connect with a prospect or customer is when we are able to enter into the conversation already going on in their head. This time of year there is lots going on and thus lots of opportunities.

The following holidays are opportunities for you and the key dates are obvious, but some not so obvious ones can be used just as effectively to touch your clients and prospects.

-Christmas
-Thanksgiving
-American Education Week (second week of November)
-Family week (4th week of November)
-Nov. 27 Black Friday (biggest shopping day of the year and everyone is looking for a buy)
-Nov. 11 Veterans Day
-Nov. 17 World Peace Day
-New Year’s Resolution suggestions
-Predictions for the New Year
-Send your Christmas Cards out
-New Years Eve Be Safe Reminder
-Plan Your January Marketing campaigns so you don’t miss the excitement of a New Year.

Pick one or all of these ideas – but don’t miss this opportunity to connect with your clients and prospects because if you don’t…someone else will.

Happy Holidays!

The bad news is that the car they loan me is a very nice… Honda Accord.

Ok, I know, I sound ungrateful, but I’m not. I am trying to teach lessons on branding and this is one they haven’t learned. I don’t want you making the same mistake. “Never cheapen your brand.“

Please note: There is nothing wrong with Accords. I actually owned one many years ago. However, if I am selling Mercedes and am giving an Accord to my good clients look what I am saying to them:

1. An Accord is a good car and you might want to consider it if you want to save some money (like during a recession).
2. And Accord is dependable which is why we loan it out.
3. You are a good customer but not good enough for us to loan one of our Mercedes to.

In addition to these non verbal messages (none of which you would really want to convey), they are also missing out on a “prime” opportunity; put me into one of their new cars and have a customer service (aka salesman) go over the car before I drive it off so I “properly understand how to use all of the wonderful new features.” And, when I return, meet me and see what I thought about the experience. Two chances to test my sales pulse. Two chances they get without having to spend money to market to customers just to “try” and get them to come test drive their cars. They spend lots of money normally doing this and they could do it spending no money and giving happy experiences to customers getting service done at the same time.

Hopefully, you aren’t making this same type of mistake with your customers but it is always profitable to stop and look at things you are doing that could be viewed differently than intended. Sometimes it is the case of using the wrong person in a relationship role; sometimes it is an error in the sales choreography your company uses that conveys an unintended and unwanted message. Take a moment, “walk your business” and see if you need to corrected and unintended mistake.

Happy Branding!

Nike is using social media and viral marketing to promote its annual Human Race series by inviting consumers to join the race through an email campaign with user generated video. While there is no direct connection with a sale of products, Nike is getting users to help build its brand and when consumers are directed to Nike’s website for registration they capture their information. I encourage you to go to Nike’s specially designed website, www.What-Cha-Doin.com, to view their campaign and go through the process yourself (see they even have me referring people to the site). By visiting the site, what you will notice is that they have set-up a program for the consumer to personalize the email they send to their friends and even include the friends running abilities and hobbies. It will be interesting to see how Nike uses this information at a later date to target advertising or other emails they send out from the names they collect.

One segment of the tour is a visit to the “underground” part of the Magic Kingdom – the tunnels below. On tour, the very knowledgeable guides explain in detail some of the “insider” points of what Disney does and the thought process that goes with it.

On this particular trip the guide told us about Disney’s Pin trading. For those of you who don’t know, Disney borrowed the idea of trading Pins from the Olympics when they observed people from different countries using it as an ice breaker to make conversation and connect with each other. Disney then created its own pins for guests in the park to trade with Disney employees or “cast members,” as they prefer the term. Obviously, in order to trade a pin you had to buy one and thus a new product line began to the tune of what is now a $100 million a year industry with its own events, including cruises.

The Pin trading venture is a whole study itself in the process of creating new verticals for your own business – but today’s lesson is perhaps more important. Our guide pointed out excitedly that it really wasn’t the pins that were important; it was in her words, “all about the opportunity to build a relationship with our guest.”
I doubt the guide thought of this on her own, and if she did Disney should certainly give her a raise and a bigger job, for the point is dead on. A sale, no matter what the product, is an opportunity to create or continue a relationship with your customer. The sale will not last. The relationship can. The true value of any sale is not today’s value but the lifetime value of that customer today and tomorrow.

In the current issue of Forbes Magazine (September 2009) another method of valuation is discussed which makes personal branding or celebrity branding even more valuable. This valuation is called “incremental value” and it is viewed as the value brought to a business not just in terms of a current sales increase, but overall company valuations for potential sale of the business itself.

The article focus on the increased value of three NFL football teams – the Patriots, Jets and Cowboys after they hired Coach Bill Parcells to turn around their football team. It then demonstrated the economic effect of that hiring to their overall corporate value.

During the Parcells tenure with the teams their total value increased by $1 billion dollars; which was $300 million more than the increased value they would have gained if their appreciation had merely tracked that of the entire league. Frankly, that number did not even allow for the fact that for at least some period of time there would be an added residual increase after Parcells left the team.

Naturally, it isn’t fair to say that it was just the fact that Parcells was promoted as the new Coach that increased the value of the team, because it was his coaching and performance that did the job. The better the team did, the higher the ticket prices were ,as well as the prices of other products. Overall sales increased as well, leading to higher valuations. Nevertheless, the name ”Parcells” now carries with it a value of its own, and that is the essence of the value of personal branding. This is true in football, business or even politics for that matter. At some point, the name becomes the brand and it has an intrinsic value of its own.

The conclusion we want to bring out to this study is the fact that personal branding or celebrity branding has many values including the pull and name recognition to catapult any business or professional practice. Don’t minimize the value as just a short-term boost but instead, see the longer term value added for yourself and your business.

Buzz Lightyear is yet another example of the continuing development of “personality branding” that Disney is so successful at. Buzz, not only has ventured into space but has his own attraction, ride and gift shop at Disney where you can buy his entire lineup of products. Surely another Buzz movie is on the way and Disney is already in discussions with the Smithsonian Institute for an exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum, which likely will be a home away from home for Buzz and company, solidifying the Buzz brand not just as a cartoon or toy figure but also as an educational product.

The lesson in all of this from a business perspective is to see how you can use your “personality” to build your brand. You can be the action hero in your own products world, and while you may not be able to give yourself a ticker-tape parade, you can participate in one. As an example, for about $2,000 you and a group of your friends can actually be in Universal Studios’ Thanksgiving Parade and hold the ropes to one of the giant balloons you see on TV. A little picture-taking of you holding a copy of your book or product, and you can produce a press release about you and your product appearing in the Universal Thanksgiving Parade. You could even join the new Buzz Lightyear promotion by buying the Buzz toy, putting him on your shoulder and taking a picture outside the Disney attraction. Your picture caption could read “Buzz welcomes you to Disney” or something fun to that effect. Or maybe take a video using a Flip HD Camera and post it on your web site or YouTube, and all of a sudden you are connecting in a new and fun way to your own customer base. Yes, publicity can be both fun and profitable…just ask Disney!

The SEC is very worried that fans will become their own broadcast stations for football games through the next generation of Flip HD cameras and so they are introducing rules they hope will stop the loss of their exclusive broadcasting rights before the loss begins. They are imposing new rules to prohibit fans taking pictures during games and posting them on Facebook, YouTube or Flickr. Oh yeah, just in case you wondered, you can’t Tweet about the games either.

If you think the SEC will be the only event organizer who sets new media policies, think again. The billion dollar TV rights buyers will demand the program sellers try and do something to preserve the exclusivity of their broadcast rights. Anyone with half a brain knows this is going to be like putting your finger in a hole in the dike. The over flow will be everywhere. How the SEC thinks they will enforce the new rules will be a question without an answer, although early on we may see some season ticket holders banned and a few lawsuits used to scare people just as in the days of early Napster.

The real answer the SEC and broadcasters are missing is the lesson social media brings us in the first place. More involvement by fans in the entire experience will only improve the interest in what is being broadcast and a rabid fan is more valuable than a fan who thinks big brother is watching his every move.

Trying to fight city hall has always been a losing proposition and the same is true for trying to bridle technology and fans. The more you try, the worse it gets. Transparency should be the new mantra for big institutions, government and yes, even football conferences.

In any event, both the play and the work were of great value and while I might write on my Facebook wall about the fun side of Disney, there is plenty to comment about on the “work” side of things.

Disney is one of the best studies of Personal Branding there is. Starting with the original brother Walt and running to the expanded personal brands of characters such as Mickey, Donald and Goofy, the company has now further extended to rock and television stars such as Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. Just like their cartoon characters, the Disney Company creates, packages and then builds an entire industry around the real life stars as well. Lest anyone think that the characters aren’t treated as people with their own specific brand position and product line you have only to look to Goofy, one of my favorites. Goofy has his own cartoons, hats, t-shirts, and even now a Goofy food company. What Disney does, and is one of the best at it is, “run deep” with every character and personality they have letting the market dictate how far they go.

The lesson to each of us is a reminder that we have an opportunity to do the same with our own personal brands. Don’t stop at offering just one level or one product of your own brand; see how far your brand will take you. If you are a dentist, be all you can be as a dentist but don’t be afraid to spread your wings and stretch out into other areas such as coaching other dentist who may not be as far along in their practice as you are with yours. Take some of your more successful dental marketing ideas and offer to license them out for dentist to use in other areas of the country were your practice isn’t located and won’t compete. In some cases you may find that your license fees become as profitable as your practice just as franchises have discovered franchise fees can be just as profitable as opening a store themselves.

We as individuals marketing our own personal brand have an unusual opportunity to expand in a variety of ways never before available because the internet has given us the ability to do this at minimal cost. The challenge is to take an audit of all the assets you have, determine who might profit from those assets including your knowledge, and reach out across the web to find those people and do business with them. There is a new frontier for growing yourself as a personal brand using all of the elements of online marketing and social media. The opportunities for profit are huge just as Disney has shown us. It’s all pretty exciting!